DJ J-Ronin & DJ Snips Present: All Elements Vol.10

First of all, my apologies to all mixtape DJs. I’ve been focusing on dudes street albums so much that I’ve been completely neglecting actual mixtapes: CDs laced with music from various artists, rappers and MCs (There is a difference between an artist (Andre 3000), rapper (Jim Jones) and MC (Rakim)). It’s those kinds of mixtapes that get the most burn on the corners and the barbershops (men need variety), and I fell off. My bad, y’all.

Here we have All Elements 10 brought to us by DJ Ronin and DJ Snips. From beginning to end All Elements lives up to its title. Here we have bangers from well-known mainstream MCs such as Jay, Ludacris and Redman to underground faves like Saigon, Slaughterhouse and Grafh. And I have to say, they all did what they set out to do: make hip-hop for everybody.

Now, I try not to get too hype when Jigga drops a new joint cause he’s been off his mark for the past year and change, but is Jay back to his former pre-Beyonce self? With lines like, “I father, I Brooklyn Dodger them/I Jack-I rob-I sin/A-men/I’m Jackie Robinson, except when I run the base I dodge the pen,” off of “Brooklyn Go Hard” it sure seems like it. “BK Anthem” (Not on this mixtape) damn near confirms it. But we’ll have to wait till the Blueprint 3 drops to know for sure.

Big ups to Ludacris for including a DJ Premier track on his album. Maybe it’s because I’m a huge Premier fan, but “MVP” is straight fire to me. The deep bass and hard drums with a Zen like tone thrown on the beat – Premier doesn’t get ‘nuff props. I’ve always said, you don’t have a hip-hop album if you don’t have a Preemo track on it. Good sh*t, Luda.

And Ali Vegas is still around? I thought Nas ended his career in the late 90s (The most meaningless battle Nas was ever involved in and the highlight to Ali’s career). I was surprised to hear his voice on “East Coast Collosal” with E. Ness (Dude from “Making The Band”), Spit Supreme (Who?) & Akir (Otravez, quien?). It wasn’t a bad sounding joint, it was real east coast street sh*t. But in this day and age that won’t get your sound past one city block.

All in all, Elements Vol. 10 does what a mixtape is supposed to do; give you street bangers that more than likely won’t get mainstream radio play. “WW4” with Saigon and Lil Fame of M.O.P. is sick, but hasn’t gotten any radio play to my recognition. Same can be said about Redman and Oh No’s “Lay You Out” where they cleverly sampled the selection sound bit from “Street Fighter 2″ and created a song in which they spit about opening a can of whup ass. There was just a bunch of buried treasures to be found here. It’s just a matter of digging through this to find your gem.-The Infamous